ΠΑΙΣ ΠΑΙΖΩΝ. Homer, Iliad XV 362–364, Heraclitus, DK 22 B 52, and F. Nietzsche

Abstract

Friedrich Nietzsche resorted several times to the image of a child play-ing with sand or pebbles. His purpose in doing so was to evoke a cyclical process of construction and destruction devoid of both responsibility and finality. This essay examines, on the one hand, the relation of the child’s image to its two main hypotexts (Heraclitus DK 22 B 52 and IliadXV 362-64) and, on the other, the range of Nietzsche’s uses of the simile.